BJ’s is the closest discount superstore to where I live, in Southborough MA, and so naturally my husband and I have a membership. However, I would rather do my shopping at stores that don’t support animal cruelty. Consumers across the country want transparency about the way animals raised for food are treated. Unfortunately, BJ’s has failed to keep their promise when it comes to the ethical treatment of animals.

I’m considering canceling my BJ’s membership because they made a commitment to go 100% cage-free and are not only failing to report their progress, but their public commitment seems to have disappeared from their website entirely! Their failure to follow through on their promise makes me feel entirely misled as a member, and I don’t want to support a business that isn’t being wholly transparent with their customers and the public. 

On factory farms, eggs are produced by female chickens, known as laying hens, who are subjected to horrible acts of cruelty. Thousands of birds are crammed together, often in filthy, darkened places where the birds have almost no ability to engage in natural behaviors. Essentially, the more hens you can confine in a given space, the more eggs that can be produced – this means a bigger profit for greedy companies at the expense of sentient birds. The cruelest type of egg production confines each bird to a small space that’s equivalent to the size of an iPad! It’s barely enough space for her to stand, let alone sit to lay an egg. 

It doesn’t have to be this way, and companies are quickly making the shift to meet consumer demand for cage-free eggs. Examples include Sam’s Club and Costco who is reporting over 94% cage-free and sharing this information with its customers on their website. These companies are not only sticking to their promises and making meaningful progress toward their cage-free commitments, but are also being transparent with consumers by publicly reporting that progress on their websites. Additionally, Arizona just became the 8th state to ban the sale and purchase of eggs from cages. It is more clear than ever that the future is cage-free.

I hope you will join me in urging BJ’s to be transparent with their customers about the progress they have made to date, and republish their policy (with a timeline!) on their website. After all, they’ve had 6 years to make this transition. Please sign my petition and let BJ’s know that they can’t get away with empty promises – let’s show them how much consumers really care about this issue!

*Photo courtesy of Andrew Skowron, Open Cages.